Chapter 1 : The Man Return
A tremendous roar, dense like a relentless downpour, paralyzed the entire region.
It was the moment that marked the end of a long, protracted war. Dark clouds poured down gray rain, washing away the stench of blood.
The four-year war had taken so much, yet it still bestowed an unrelenting sense of unreality.
Razel, pressing her hand against the damp windowpane, gazed out at the desolate estate.
…Her homeland had been defeated.
The nation had fallen to the enemy.
The kingdom’s most prominent high nobles had lost their lives to the enemy’s leaders and returned to the earth.
In this truly unbelievable reality, Razel pondered the cruel future ahead.
‘The enemy’s cheers drawing nearer means that our Count Ephor family is next…’
The thought that her once greedy life would end in death made her cold fingertips twitch.
Razel bit her lip hard.
‘It’s okay. Nothing will happen…’
She planned to flee with her family to another place as soon as preparations for the long journey were complete.
She just needed to hold out safely until then.
‘But… when exactly are we leaving?’
It had already been two hours since the servant had said they would come to inform her once preparations were done.
By now, it was impossible not to notice that the enemy was approaching. Their booming voices reached even here, didn’t they?
Letting out an anxious sigh, Razel turned away from the window.
Staring at the landscape beyond the castle walls reminded her of someone.
Unwelcome thoughts began to chain together.
‘…I wonder if that man really died.’
Or perhaps, by some stroke of luck, he survived and returned to his place.
Someone who had been pushed to the battlefield by Razel right around the time the war began.
As she traced her memories, Razel lightly gripped the hem of her dress. At that moment, a sudden commotion shook the mansion.
It was a sharp scream.
Razel flinched instinctively and whipped her head toward the door.
“Lady! Lady Razel!”
The door burst open, and a pale-faced maid rushed in.
Forgetting all etiquette in the urgency, the maid grabbed Razel’s hand and dragged her outside in a frenzy.
“You must flee at once! Oh, downstairs, the enemy from Crombel…”
“What? The enemy…? Father? Mother…?”
Before she could even mention her only older sister, the maid’s face darkened further.
As Razel followed where the maid led, a dreadful suspicion made her trembling lips part.
“Have they been captured by Crombel’s soldiers?”
“N-no, not exactly…”
“Don’t hem and haw—just tell me properly! What happened to them?”
Unable to bear the frustration and anxiety, Razel raised her voice sharply. The realization that the enemy had stormed the castle hit her belatedly, filling her with regret.
But if her family was already in danger, her own fate wouldn’t be any different.
Fleeing would only delay a cruel end by however far she ran.
Yet, after a moment of hesitation, the maid’s response veered far from Razel’s expectations.
“They evacuated first…”
“What?”
“The master, the madam, and the eldest lady left an hour ago. There was so much luggage to load that they prepared a separate carriage for you later…”
The unbelievable news left Razel’s mind blank.
‘My family left first…’
She hadn’t been able to join them in their carriage simply because of some luggage.
Her vision went white, as if she’d received a death sentence.
In truth, it wasn’t all that surprising.
Even though they were family, Razel, always falling behind her sister, had constantly endured their mistreatment.
But this time, the shock was immense, making it hard to recover.
Even if they had prepared another carriage for her…
‘This is abandonment…’
Something threatened to burst from her heart, but Razel ultimately clamped her lips shut.
She knew that throwing a fit in this urgent situation would accomplish nothing.
Like a doll, Razel allowed herself to be pulled along by the maid’s hand. Emerging from the back door, she saw a small carriage waiting.
‘…Even if I board that, can I really survive?’
With the enemy already here.
Sensing despair, she exhaled the breath trapped in her lungs in a rush.
“There’s no time, my lady! Please board the carriage quickly…”
As the maid opened the carriage door and pushed Razel inside, a chilling sound grazed past behind her.
Something was sliced, followed by the squelch of viscous liquid splattering—a sound she’d never heard in her life.
Then came a suppressed groan that struck Razel’s ears. That pained voice belonged to the maid who’d been speaking moments ago.
Thud. With the hollow sound of collapse, a metallic tang lingered in the air.
Razel froze on the spot.
She couldn’t miss the fact that something had splattered onto her lavender dress.
“…”
A rough, dry breath escaped her. Her heart pounded abnormally, leaving her unable to move from where she stood.
‘Right behind me, someone is there…’
The one who had killed the maid leading her.
Overwhelming fear made her teeth chatter and clash.
In that moment, the enemy approached Razel with heavy, thudding footsteps. The cold clank of boots paralyzed her heart and mind.
The drip of blood from the chilling sword he’d pulled from the maid seized her nerves.
Soon, the footsteps stopped.
The someone had drawn close behind her.
“Razel Ephor.”
Her heart plummeted at the call, sharp amid the tension.
Her mind was in chaos, unable to fully discern the voice, but she could tell it was terribly low.
Trembling, Razel stiffly turned her head to look back.
Her terrified eyes met a bloodstained, cold helmet. In that instant, her legs gave out, and she tumbled roughly to the ground.
“Hah…”
Death was right before her.
The moment she saw the armored man standing alone before her, intuition told her he was the reaper come to claim her life.
Propping herself up on the ground with both hands, Razel couldn’t retreat; she could only look up at the tall figure.
The maid’s pooled blood stained Razel’s trailing golden hair and hands.
It was then that the man moved.
Razel flinched, but instead of raising his sword, he slowly removed his helmet with his free hand.
Razel’s eyes widened as she blankly followed his actions. The moment the helmet fully came off, revealing his head.
“…!”
Her breath stopped.
Her lips, gaping in shock, let slip words that didn’t form a sentence.
“You, you…”
Revealed were hair as black as ebony. Blue eyes cold to the point of stillness.
The man exuding an intense presence was both a reaper and not.
He was evidence of a sin from her past, one she had discarded.
Razel jolted again, lost in a daze, when the man used the sword he’d set down to lift her flowing long hair.
The razor-sharp tip grazed her slender neckline.
His sealed lips parted slowly.
“It’s been a while. You look utterly shocked to see me return alive…”
He curled one corner of his mouth subtly, as if sending a silent sneer.
The pouring gray rain had, at some point, turned to white snow, bleaching the world pale.
Razel’s heart ached with a chill as vast as that world.
The sword’s tip drew even closer to her throat.
“Razel Ephor, my princess… Shall I save you, or abandon you?”
Razel couldn’t even plead for her life; she just squeezed her eyes shut. Perhaps because fragments of her past with this man flashed through her mind.
Because no hope of survival seemed possible.
Moreover, the cold sword clung close, sweeping just an inch from her neck.
But soon, the sword was withdrawn.
‘…Why isn’t anything happening?’
Waiting only for death, Razel slowly opened her eyes when no pain came.
Her gaze met blue eyes resembling winter’s chill. He stared at her without a flicker of wavering.
By now, other soldiers had approached behind him.
They stood at attention, waiting a few steps away from the man. There seemed to be dozens of them, behaving as if he were their superior.
It was then that the man knelt to meet Razel’s eye level.
At the same time, his one hand grasped both her cheeks.
“Unfortunately, meekly awaiting death isn’t an option.”
“…”
“Congratulations, Razel. I’ve decided to buy your fragile, unhappy life.”
The life she was meant to forfeit—he had willingly purchased it at a price.
“So, you’ll have to pay the value of your life.”
“H-how…”
A choked voice leaked from her barely parted lips. He responded with frost-like indifference.
“By abandoning your family, your country, and everything else precious to you… and marrying me, the one you so despised.”
“…”
“That’s why I bought you. For a pittance.”
As if repaying past humiliations, he left a short, mocking laugh.
Then, he pulled her chin closer and claimed her lips as he pleased.
Pressing down on her shoulders forcefully, as if engraving insult.
“…!”
Razel’s startled, hazy breath mingled with faint exhalations between them, scattering and swallowed. Her strength drained, she collapsed and couldn’t resist.
Whether to call this salvation or revenge, she couldn’t tell.
What was clear was that the evidence of the sin she had cast away had come for her.
The sin of toying with a slave to her heart’s content and discarding him at whim.
That man had returned to punish Razel.
To become the reaper and husband who would take everything precious from her.
